Love the original catalog index of homes. <a href="http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/1908-1914.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/1908-1914.htm</a><p>You can click on the pictures to see the original home ads in the Sears catalog, with prices (e.g. <a href="http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/images/1908-1914/1911_0113.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/images/1908-1914/1911_011...</a>) $1062 for the parts to a beautiful American Craftsman style bungalow ($34,394.38 adjusted for inflation)! Some assembly required :)<p>On a tangential note: Sears killed the mail order catalog in 1993, just as the Internet was starting to take off. They could have been Amazon. Now, even their landmark highrise, the Sears Tower, has been unceremoniously renamed Willis Tower.<p>I still like the idea of mail order house parts & plans though. Someone should start a startup to make and build them.
I got excited when I found the link to <a href="https://www.searshouses.com/national-list" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.searshouses.com/national-list</a><p>But...<p>> Do we share our national database? We largely keep our database private, for the use of our research team, but will certainly answer questions from homeowners, historical societies, press, or the general public, about specific information we have collected.<p>I wonder why?<p>I would very much love to see a map of Sears houses in the SF Bay Area.<p>Here's a guess: maybe they're worried about people bothering the residents of those homes? It might be that people who talk to their researchers specifically ask them not to share their addresses, and not publishing a list is the best way to get homeowners to voluntarily talk to them.
I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and I didn't realize how weird the term "Chicagoland" was until I started traveling around a bit. I'm not aware of any other city in the world that tacks "land" onto the name to describe the surrounding area. Do this with any other city and it sounds like a weird amusement park: Dallasland, Indianapolisland, Seattleland, etc.
On the theme of pre-fab (albeit not mail order): I'm in western Ohio and we have a few Lustron houses[0] left around. These were a post-WWII product. Once you know the design features they're easy to spot.<p>In the town where I live we also have the Hobart Steel Houses[1] that were a quirky proof-of-concept by a local manufacturer. My daughter's first school is located in one of these houses. Being able to stick magnets in nearly any surface in the house is bizarre and cool. The school uses this property to great effect. I don't see how they would have ever been economical, though.<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lustron_house" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lustron_house</a><p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobart_Welded_Steel_House_Company_and_its_works" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobart_Welded_Steel_House_Comp...</a>
The whole of Chicago is just Sears houses every direction you face. Whole streets filled with them for miles at a time on the South Side especially.<p>I love seeing all the small variations and modifications people have made, either when they were building them or later owners.
For those interested in kit houses - Sears houses are fascinating but they were not the first houses you could order and have shipped. To give one random example, this house in San Diego was built in Maine, sent by ship to San Francisco, but then sold (and assembled) en route in San Diego when it was clear the bust after the gold rush meant there might not be a buyer in SF<p><a href="https://gaslampfoundation.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://gaslampfoundation.org/</a>
Looking at the pictures I instantly recognize them as house designs from my neighborhood. Unwrapped a layer of history I didn't know about, very cool.
Galveston, Texas still has some of these. My friend lived in one for several years before the real estate market (and new job in Houston) forced their hand.
99% Invisible had a good podcast on Sears Homes: <a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-in-the-mail/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-i...</a>